Garment slide



w. B. SHAW GARMENT `SLIDE May 25, 1937.

Filed' Aug. 29, 193s `Patented May 25, 1937 GARMENT SLIDE William Bligh Shaw, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,

assigner to The Locbar Buckle Company, Limited, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, a corporation of Nova Scotia Appelation august 29, 1936, serial No. 93,587

In Canada Augustl9, 1936 4 Claims.

This invention relates to slides for garment straps such as overall suspender-s and its object is to provide a practical form of slide through which the strap. does not have to be threaded, ras is necessary with all slides in commercial use at present.

The most generally used form of slide at present consists of a rectangular frame with a cross bar connected at its ends to the shorter sides of the frame. To connect a buckle to the end oi a strap by means of this slide itis necessary, after threading the end of the strap through the buckle, to thread the end four times through the slide, the last two threadings being carried out inside the rst two and therefore being relatively diflicult to effect.

Various proposals have been made to leave one end of the cross bar unconnected to the frame, so that the necessary loops in the strap might be ready formed, the free end of the cross bar inserted through them and then connected to the frame. For such an arrangement to be practicable at all it is necessary that the cross bar be capable of at least limited rotation in a direct perpendicular to the plane of the frame, so that it can pass through the frame from one side to the other.

Only one arrangement in which the cross bar can pass through the frame has been proposed. In this arrangement an inwardly extending ear is provided on each of the short sides ofthe frame and one end of a cross bar is connected to one of them, the connection being such as to allow the cross bar a limited movement of rotation, both in the plane of the frame and in a plane perpendicular toit. The free end of the cross bar is bent down, the bent portion being adapted to snap into a hole in the other ear. With this arrangement, the loops in the strap are formed and held, the detachable connection of the free end of the cross bar is undone and the bar swung sulciently to one side or the other to clear the ear. It is then swung down through the frame, so that it is below it and in this position inserted through the loops in the strap. After insertion it is pushed upward through the frame and swung across to a position where its free end is above the ear, and then fo-rced downward so that this end snaps into the hole in the ear.

Although the above arrangement does eliminate threading, it has a number of disadvantages which have prevented it from coming into practical use. If the frame is made of the usual length i. e. such that its opening is just long` enough to accommodate the width of the strap, the distance between the Ainner ends of the ears is considerably less than this width, so that the ear designed to hold the free end of the cross bar interferes with the free movement of the latter when it is carrying the loops of the strap through the frame, in that during this operation all the thicknesses of these loops plus the thickness of the cross bar must be accommodated in a space slightly less than one-half the width of the frame. Moreover, when the cross bar carrying the loops is swung across above the frame to bring it to a position where its free end may be clipped into the hole in the ear, the latter holds the depending thicknesses of the strap to one side of the frame, and these must be specially placed two on eachV side of the ear before the cross bar can be closed down. If, to avoid these difliculties, the slide is lengthened so that the distance between the inner ends ofthe ears is about equal to the; width of the belt, the cost of its production will be increased owing to the greater amount of metal used, and it will be of a much less neat appearance. Moreover, when it is moved for adjustment it will tend to be at an angle to the width of the strap, and the inner thickness of the latter passing through it will not b-e completely covered by the outer thickness. Even with a slide of the normal size, the cost of production is greater than that of the usual type of slide, since the frame of the latter is generally made simply of a length of wire bent in the form of a rectangle with its ends welded together, while the frame of the slide last described would have to be punched out by means of a special die, with consequent wastage of metal.

For the abo-ve reasons the great majority of slides used at present are still substantially of the type first described, in spite of the fact that the threading operation `not only increases labour costs but slows up production.

The slide, according to the present invention, not only eliminates the necessity of threading the strap but has none of the disadvantages of the slide last described. It comprises a frame and a cross bar having at one end a longitudinally extending eye through which the frame passes, so that the cross bar is slidable longitudinally of itself with respect to ,the frame and is at least partially rotatable in a plane perpendicular to that of the frame, so that its free end may pass through the frame from one side to the other. The free end of the cross bar has means for detachably holding it in position on the frame.

The invention is illustrated in the attached drawing, in which:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the strap properly looped and the slide ready for application to it.

Figure 2 is a view illustrating the manner in which attachment of the slide to the strap is effected after the slide has been applied.

Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the strap with a slide attached in position.

Figure 4 is a cross section of the slide, with the cross bar shown in dotted lines for the sake of greater clearness, and

Figure 5 is a perspective View showing the application of the invention to a combined slide and buckle, the combined device being shown in position on a strap.

As shown in Figures 1 and 3 of the drawing, the slide comprises a frame I and a cross bar 2 having at one end a longitudinally extending eye 3 through which the frame passes, with the result that the cross bar 2 is slidable longitudinally of itself with respect to the frame. The cross bar may, if desired, be made fully rotatable in a plane perpendicular to the frame, but in the preferred construction shown it is only partially so, in order that when it is allowed to pass down through the frame it will not drop further than to substantially the position in which it is shown in Figure 1. This result is achieved by making at least that part of the frame which passes through the eye of rectangular cross section and making the width a of the eye somewhat greater than the height but less than the length of any diagonal of the rectangular portion 4 of the frame shown in cross section in Figure 3. The free end 5 of the cross bar is provided with means in the form of a portion 6 turned downward and slightly inward for detachably holding this end in position on the frame, which, if desired, may be notched as at 'I and 8 to hold the two ends of the cross bar in their proper position.

In order to attach a buckle and a slide according to this invention to a strap, the end 9 of the latter is first passed through the buckle I and turned back upon itself to form a lower loop II having sides I2 and I3. The end 9 is then again turned back on itself to form an upper loop I4 having sides I3 and I5. The main portion of the strap is then folded over the upper loop I4 and held there so that the upper loop has two thicknesses of strap. When this has been done, the free end of the cross bar 2 is unclipped from the frame and the bar is pushed back until the free end clears the frame and the bar drops to the position shown in Figure 1. The slide is then moved to the right towards the looped strap, the cross bar being passed inside the loop and the frame outside it so that the slide occupies the position shown in dotted lines in Figure l. The frame is then rotated down to bring it to the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 2, the cross bar passing through the frame as it is still in what may be referred to as its retracted position. The cross bar is then pushed to the right to bring it to the full line position of Figure 2 and the frame rotated upwardly to its full line position, the turned down end 6 of the cross bar thus clipping on to the frame. 'I'he installation is then complete and presents in use the appearance shown in Figure 3.

From the above description it will be seen that the attachment of the slide is extremely easy to effect. It has, in fact, been found that the slide may be attached by a person having practically no experience in one-half the time which it takes a skilled operator to thread the usual slide described at the beginning of the specification. The improved slide is, moreover, no more expensive to manufacture than the usual slide.

In Figure 5 a slide according to the invention is shown combined with a buckle. The usual combined slides and buckles have three slots and the strap must be threaded four times, the last two threadings being inside the first two. To attach the improved form it is merely necessary to double back the end of the strap, turn back the doubled end on itself and then apply the device as described in connection with Figures 1 to 4.

I claim:-

1. A slide comprising a frame, a cross bar connected at one end to the frame, said cross bar being slidable longitudinally of itself with respect to the frame and being at least partially rotatable in a plane perpendicular to that of the frame, and means at the other end of the cross bar for detachably holding such end in position on the frame.

2. A slide comprising a frame, a cross bar having at one end thereof a longitudinally extending eye through which the frame passes, said cross bar being thus slidable longitudinally of itself with respect to the frame and being at least partially rotatable in a plane perpendicular to that of the frame, and means at the other end of the cross bar for detachabtly holding such end in position on the frame. ,Y

3. A slide comprising a frame atv least in part of rectangular cross section, a cross bar having at one end thereof a longitudinally extending eye through which the part of the frame of rectangular cross section passes, the width of said eye being greater at both ends than the thickness of said part of rectangular cross section measured in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame, and means at the other end of the cross bar for detachably holding such other end in position on the frame.

4. A slide comprising a frame at least in part of rectangular cross section, a cross bar having at one end thereof a longitudinally extending eye through which the part of the frame of rectangular cross section passes, the width of said eye being greater at both ends than the thickness of said part of rectangular cross section meas ured in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame and less at the inner end than the length of any diagonal of said rectangular part.

WILLIAM BLIGH SHAW. 

